Tag: Salvatore Naturelle

NEW YORK/LONDON: Gays are coming in for some strange slaggings from the press. A rash of gay gunmen seems to be spreading almost as fast as Arab terrorists. In the first place, fresh evidence suggests that John Wojtowicz, the “gay” gunman in the Flatbush, New York, raid that started it all, who was not shot by the police, was a Mafia gunman anyway.

Originally John and Salvatore Naturale were said to have raided the Chase Manhattan Bank in Flatbush, Brooklyn, after being tipped off by someone they met in a gay bar that there was going to be $200,000 there.

In fact the $200,000 was taken from the bank almost four hours before John and Naturale raided the place, leaving about $29,000 in the vaults.

So the “gay” gunmen grabbed what cash there was and the staff when police cars screeched up, summoned by secret signals.

That was when the ordinary, everyday Brooklyn bank-raid became a curio for the world’s press. For, despite Salvatore Naturale’s denial that he was gay, the raid was dubbed “Gay Gunmen” by the world’s press because John demanded that his gay spouse Ernest Aron was released from mental hospital, as one condition of the raiders’ setting free the bank employees.

Ernest was brought along by the cops, looking a lot the worse from having just recovered from an overdose of sleeping tablets, and the hormones he’d been taking in preparation for the sex-change operation he’s promised himself.

The question remains: what was a gay Vietnam war veteran doing holding up a bank in Flatbush N.Y.?

Captain Nemo of I.T. suggests that the Mafia, who have had a running battle with the Chase Manhattan Bank used John to carry out its latest raid on the bank.

In fact, Nemo alleges that it was when Ernest found that the Mafia had sent John one of the guns used in the raid that he took the sleepers.

The Mafia boss said to be behind it all was Mike Umbers, the mob’s head of exploitation of gays. The senior Mafia men behind the raid should have got $75,000 to $100,000. The rest should have gone to the five bank-robbers, three of whom chickened out.

The “gay gunmen” raid leaves gays in New York wondering just how the whole caper relates to gay liberation and what they can do about the fact that virtually every New York gay bar is controlled by the Mafia.

Meanwhile London gays are angry at the Evening Stadard’s follow-up gay raid headline.

The Standard reported that four men snatched several thousand pounds from Barclays Bank, Knightsbridge Green.

The paper’s story mentioned that one of the bank-raiders wore pink gloves.

The headline was “Gay bandits raid bank” There was no mention made in the story of the raiders’ sexual preferences, only of their taste in gloves.

Much love and thanks to International Times – whoops, I.T., for allowing us to pinch their scoop.

It was Donald Matterson, aged 18, who was killed by an FBI agent at Kennedy airport, not ‘Salvatore Naturelle’ as originally printed. The FBI identified him after death through his fingerprints. There is no evidence to suggest that he is gay, unlike John Wojtowic.

Wojtowic is reported to have staged the hold-up to raise cash for a sex-change operation for Ernest Aarons, his lover, according to one of his hostages. Wojtowic had been in the care of a psychiatrist since January.

Aarons and Wojtowic had been married by a defrocked Roman Catholic priest last December, after having lived together for several months. Aarons wore a four hundred dollar wedding gown.

Two days before the hold-up attempt, Aarons attempted to commit suicide after the apparent end of their marriage during a quarrel. Wojtowic is said to have been ‘insanely jealous’. It is thought that this, coupled with Wojtowic’s problems about his own sexuality, led him to embark on this venture.

None of the hostages were hurt; all of the money was recovered. Wojtowic is now awaiting trial; bail has been set at $250,000.